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Limiting Government Through the Culture War

The speeches at FreePAC in Dallas July 26 will have a lasting impact on the movement for limited government. Each was inspirational and important, but one stands out among the others for the insight that political victories are a result of cultural change.

The only way to limit government is with a limiting culture.

You can watch the rest of the amazing FreePAC speeches from the links below:

Richard Mourdock made me proud to have done a small part to help him win the Indiana US Senate nomination

Glenn Beck called this the beginning of a worldwide movement for freedom

The most important speech at FreePac, however, was Matt Kibbe telling the assembled leaders for freedom "Politics is not enough," as Kibbe said."We must take over every aspect of our culture if we're going to take our country back."

Restoring freedom and limiting government can not be accomplished just with political engagement or even by focusing on good policy. We must engage and retake our culture and its institutions.

The only way to limit government is to restore a culture that insists it be limited. Further, that culture must provide a way to meet the needs of society currently met by big government.

Churches must insist themselves from their own resources and with their own efforts on providing for the needs of their members, knowing that when government meets those needs, it pushes the wider Church itself to the sidelines, like a sad former star quarterback who insists he can still play.

We must, in the words of Chris Loesch to me at FreePAC, "Back talented acts, actors and directors, not just conservatives who happen to have acts. Otherwise we're the same as the left."

Kibbe said, "We have to take over Hollywood. We have to take over the media. We have to take over the culture."

Diverse conservative voices such as Rick Santorum, Andrew Breitbart, Sarah Palin and Matt Kibbe all now are on record saying that the real battleground for conservatives and libertarians is the culture. Each of them said it in a different way and for different reasons, but the nub of it is that our politics reflects the attitude of the people, not the other way around.

We chastise politicians for not standing up for our ideals, yet they are mere reflections of their job descriptions. They are supposed to represent their constitutents, and they cannot be expected to fight the larger culture when doing so.

We need to change our culture if we have a hope of changing our politics.

That starts when you don't accept a media narrative in a casual conversation. It continues when you interact online. Highlight the stories you want to read more about.

Insist that the people around you -- both online and in daily life -- accept the validity of your viewpoint, and eventually your viewpoint will become accepted.

The name "FreedomWorks" seems a bit contradictory with "Kibbe said, 'We have to take over Hollywood. We have to take over the media. We have to take over the culture.' " Back in grade school, I thought pilgrims and other founders came here in reaction to and leaving from places where others were imposing culture. Culltures may grow or die or evolve based on their success in earning the free choice of free people.

I thought the idea of the USA was multiple cultures existed with society and laws enforcing right to freely explore and follow culture/beliefs/etc. , . . . up until the point that people/culture groups start to reach out and coerce and impede and manipulete others. Then the state steps-in as a referee.

"Take over Hollywood" sounds like "forceful cultural outreach" to me. Joe Stalin and a guy named Adolph-something had some outreach programs that were eventually resisted.

You take back hollywood by not making it profitable to make movies about "bad things" make it profitable to make "FAMILY and value oriented" movie....Not by force but by what hit them the hardest....if they can't make millions on a movie that is full of things we don't want in our kids lives then they won't make those movies as often. If you and your friends and neigbors "boycott" those things, they are going to go where "the money is". I have noticed lately that disney and family movies have been making alot more money so those are the films that are coming out

Kibbe is not talking about imposing culture with law -- he is in fact pointing out that you can't do that. Culture drives politics, not the other way around. We aren't talking about coercion, but tackling the problem where it begins.

It's time for a no holds barred discussion on race and economics in America and who better to bring it to you than Matt Kibbe and Deneen Borelli? They're kicking off the multi-city tour in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this Wednesday, September 26th.

This last weekend in Cincinnati Ohio over 6,500 grassroots volunteers and FreedomWorks supporters joined us for over six hours of training and inspirational presentations. Using our livestream technology located on our FreedomConnector platform, an additional 20,000 members watched and participated in real time discussion and interactions.

This past weekend as over 16,000 freedom loving activists gathered in Dallas for FreePAC, the main stream media chose once again to largely ignore the Tea Party event and its supporters. Much like 2009, when media outlets ignored over one million activists gathered on the Capitol Mall, coverage of this event was ultimately left to alternative media instead. This is not surprising to many of us who have been active in this movement since its inception. If they don't report it, it didn't happen. I mean the Tea Party is dead, right?

Ever since the Chick-fil-A President Cathy voiced his opinion in favor of the tradional view of marriage, politicians have been stumbling over themselves to threaten to discriminate against the Chick-fil-A company on the basis of the free expression of one of its executives.

One of the privileges afforded the writers on Bloggers Row at FreePAC on July 26 was the opportunity to attend a "press gaggle" after the event. We had the opportunity to head down to the arena's catacombs for press availability with Sen. Jim DeMint, Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Rand Paul, Senate Candidate Ted Cruz from Texas and Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock from Indiana.Here is the video of that event. (Technical note - please excuse the audio difficulties. There was a ton of background noise and this was taken on my cell phone.)Highlights include:

A bizarre scene unfolded on the day after FreePAC in the lounge of the W Hotel in Dallas Texas. Several FreedomWorks activists were relaxing before dinner, including activists from Indiana and Ohio, myself, Kristina Ribali and Dean Clancy, Vice President of Healthcare Policy at FreedomWorks. It was about 7pm, and we were sharing stories and socializing. Electricity in the lounge increased as we realized that there was a Mary Kay convention in town, and the bar began to fill up with sales ladies, and the volume slowly began to rise. We didn't really take much notice.

I've been to a lot of conferences, rallies, speeches, campaign events, seminars and conventions since I became active in politics in 2009. Prior to the rise of the Tea Party Movement, I was merely an observer of politics. Frankly, I hated politics, and in many ways I still do. In fact, being more deeply involved now, I've found many new and wondrous ways to hate the process that aren't immediately apparent to the general public.Did I mention that I hate politics?

Every once in a while, the paper of record here in Oregon comes up with an interesting article that puts the hood up on our state government and gives it a going over. Granted, a regular maintenance plan should include far more frequent tune ups and oil changes, but when they remember to look at that little sticker in the corner of their windshield, they can be very diligent when they finally get in to the mechanic.